“…engrossing… from first hammer blow to last squeak” – The 405

“…shows off a more compositionally direct Frost, focusing on heaviosity and purer sound by getting in Steve Albini to capture live sessions direct to tape” – The Wire

BEN FROST has shared a new track ahead of the release of his fifth studio album, The Centre Cannot Hold, out on Mute on 29 September 2017.

Listen to ‘Ionia’ here: http://po.st/BFIoniaYT. The track follows the release of ‘Threshold Of Faith’, and will be available on streaming services from 13 September. Ionia and a remix from JLIN will be available on 12” on 22 September, and the remix will be available digitally on 15 September 2017.

The Centre Cannot Hold was recorded over ten days by Steve Albini in Chicago. The music exists not in space, but in a space; it is a document of an event, of a room, and of the composer within it. It is music that is not fully controlled and appears to be anxiously, often violently competing against its creator.

In collaborating with Albini, Frost chooses a new immediacy and raw directness. As an artist whose command of sound design lies at the heart of his practice, by placing himself primarily in the role of live performer and handing the studio recording process over to Albini, Frost continues pursuit of Theseus’ paradox; the question of whether a ship restored by replacing every single part remains the same ship.

Watch the video for Threshold Of Faith, the opening cut from the new album, a new collaboration shot in the winter of 2016 in Reykjavík, Iceland with conceptual documentary photographer Richard Mosse and Cinematographer Trevor Tweeten: http://po.st/BFThresholdVideo

Ben Frost embarks on a tour in autumn starting on 25 September in Essen, Germany, with a London date at the Electric Brixton on 5 October, full details below.

FURTHER PRAISE FOR THRESHOLD OF FAITH

“moving from heroic vistas into a garbled, snow-blinded melee. Distant choral pads, a glistening upper-register sheen, submerged piano, and groaning harmonies all stack up into a geologic crescendo that extends into infinity.” – Pitchfork